Drivers

Federal Fuel Price Report Back, Diesel Keeps Falling

One of the most closely watched surveys of fuel prices is back online following the end of the partial federal government shutdown and it shows fuel prices keep trending lower.

The U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reports for the week of Oct. 14 the average cost of diesel fell 1.1 cent from a week earlier to $3.886 per gallon. The number is close to what some private surveys reported a few days earlier.

The federal price is down for the fifth consecutive week. Before this recent string of declines it stood at $3.981. It is also down 26.4 cents from the same time a year ago.

Diesel ranges between a low of$3.797 in the Gulf Coast region, down 0.8 cents over the past week, to a high of $4.047 in the West Coast region, a drop of a half-cent during the same time.

Meantime, the average U.S. cost of gasoline is down 1.3 cents over the past week to $3.354 per gallon and is 46.5 cents lower than the same time a year ago.

It will not be surprising if fuel prices have declined again when the next report is released on Monday afternoon. That’s because the cost of crude keeps moving lower. As of mid-Friday morning it stood at around $101 per barrel in New York trading, down nearly a dollar and half from the settlement price at the start of the week.